No Regrets
by BlueBumbler
Summary: The pirate fox frowned softly, reaching his hand up to gently brush a lock of hair out of her face. "Don't be daft, lass. I got put outta order because a' me own actions. An' I don't regret it. If I had it ta do over again, I'd still do what I had ta to protect ye." - This story of the Bite of 87 has been told many times, but I have never offered my version.


The pizzeria was filled with the sounds of music and children's laughter, bright lights illuminating the stage as Freddy Fazbear, the namesake of the restaurant himself, and his friends Chika the chicken and Bonnie the bunny, sang songs for the excited children. It was the same routine they went through everyday, the same songs, but it never seemed to grow old. Not when it brought such joy to the children. Seeing their smiles and hearing their laughter made each performance just as rewarding as the last.

However, there were no lights on Pirate Cove. No smiling children waiting for Foxy to make his grand entrance and entertain them with songs and adventures across the seas. Instead, all that awaited Foxy was the familiar sight of pulled curtains and a sign that would forever read "Sorry - Out of order."

Light danced between those curtains mockingly, teasing Foxy with the memory of how it had felt to be in the spotlight, have the children cheering him on, singing with him. At times, he was jealous of Freddy and the others, but he could never resent them. No, it wasn't their fault that they were allowed to live out their life's purpose while he was not. He only had himself to blame for that.

Pulling away from the curtain and further into the darkness, the mechanical pirate fox shifted to sit slowly on the steps that led up to his ship. It had been built into the stage, appearing to be sailing the seas with bright blue skies and a burning sun overhead. The background and props were in a state of disrepair, paint faded and chipping while his ship collected dust. Sighing wistfully, Foxy's glowing eyes went dim, gears whirring faintly as he slumped forward. He remembered the day everything changed... The day people started to fear them. As much as he missed how things used to be, as much as he missed performing for the kids, he would never regret what he did.

It had started just like any other normal, summer day. The pizzeria was packed full of families, children playing games and giggling through mouthfuls of pizza as they watched Freddy, Bonnie and Chika put on shows and sing songs for them. At that time they had been allowed to wander freely during the day, interact with the children and each other. The manager at the time, Mark, had known that they were more than machines, that they were alive. But he had simply told the customers that they had extremely advanced AIs, so as not to arouse suspicion. Though, one could argue that animatronics with such advanced AIs would be suspicious on its own.

When the last song came to an end, Freddy stepped off stage and stood before the gathered children with a bright smile. "All right, kids! Let's head over to Pirate Cove! I heard that Captain Foxy is getting ready to go on another adventure!" he announced, gaining squeals of excitement from the kids as they were quick to abandon what was left of their pizza and run to the second stage, a few children going slower to walk with Freddy, Bonnie and Chika, holding their hands and getting smiles from the animatronics.

Foxy, whose stage was on the far end of the dining room, felt his gears tightening in excitement as he waited for the curtains to open, eager to entertain his audience. Freddy and his band were the more popular attraction, seeing as how they were the mascots, but Foxy could still steal the show.

When most of the children had gathered outside the stage, the curtains pulled open to reveal Foxy with his back turned to the children, observing his ship thoughtfully. The cheers and laughter of the kids made Foxy pretend to be surprised, turning around to face them with a toothy grin. "Ah! Ahoy thar, kiddies! How are ye landlubbers on this fine day?"

The resounding response from the children was a mix of "Good!" and "Great!", their eager smiles saying as much.

Foxy grinned. "Good! Because ol' Captain Foxy is gonna take ye all on an adventure across the seven seas! Where we'll be fightin' for treasure! An' maybe a slice or two a' Chika's pizza!" he announced, making the children laugh.

Chika smiled as she answered, going through the planned interaction. "You better not steal any of my pizza, Foxy!" she said in a playfully scolding tone, making the captain give a laugh. "Oh, ye never let me 'ave any fun, lass!" he responded, getting more laughter.

Giving the audience a quick look over, he noticed several familiar children. One of whom was his favorite. Anna, a petite little girl no older than seven with blond curls and green-blue eyes. She always had a picture or a hug for him, and was always eager to talk to him. He hadn't seen her since last month, when she had come to celebrate her birthday.

Due to Mark's quick excuse that they had advanced facial recognition programs to help give each child a unique experience, as well as help the police if one should go missing, he was allowed to openly remember the children by name. "Harhar, I see some familiar faces today! Anna, me lass, how are ye?" he asked, expecting her to come up to him.

However, something was wrong today... Her smile was off, she seemed nervous and uncomfortable as she shifted in her seat and glanced to the man sitting next to her before looking back at Foxy. "I-I'm okay."

He was confused by her response, sparing a glance at the man seated next to her. He remembered him from her birthday party, but he wasn't sure what his relation to her was. Anna's father was a nice man, he was one of the few adults Foxy could say he liked. But this guy... he had disliked him the moment he saw him. There was something about him that made his circuits seem to tingle with nervous energy. Suddenly realizing that he had allowed a silence to stretch on for a few seconds longer than normal, he spoke up. "Glad to hear it, lass!" he finally said before turning to another familiar child in the audience to speak with him. He couldn't linger on Anna, or ask her what was bothering her without the adults getting suspicious and causing problems for Mark.

After finishing his introduction and learning the children's names, Foxy tried to go on with the performance without being distracted by his worries. It started with Foxy telling the children he would share his most valued treasure with them. Which was actually free coloring books and coupons that he and the others would hand out after the show. But, being that this treasure was so important to him, he had locked it away safely in a treasure chest. However, when he went to find said treasure chest, it was gone! So, naturally, Foxy had started accusing the children in the audience of stealing his treasure, making them laugh as they each denied having anything to do with the crime. Finally, he concluded that it must have been Bonnie, Chika and Freddy that stole his treasure.

The children loved their group skits, and this one was proving to be a crowd favorite, even getting a few laughs from the adults who happened to be paying attention. However, Anna's laugh was still missing, and he couldn't help but spare a glance in her direction every few minutes. The little girl still didn't seem to be enjoying herself, squirming in her seat as she seemed more upset than before. What was the matter? Why couldn't he make her smile? Foxy struggled to make it through the rest of the performance without being too distracted, even screwing up a few of his lines, to which Freddy would give him a concerned glance while the audience either didn't notice or thought it was a small programming error.

Near the end of the skit, Chika emerged from behind the pirate ship with a treasure chest in her hands, announcing that Foxy had simply misplaced the chest and it had been on his ship the whole time. Bonnie, staying in character, placed his hands on his hips as he gave Foxy a bit of a scolding. "See? We didn't steal your treasure! You had it all along!" he said, causing Foxy to droop a little and give a small apology. Freddy forgave the fox and concluded that one should never jump to conclusions about their friends. Almost every skit ended with some kind of lesson about friendship, though Foxy doubted that it really stuck with the children.

With the performance almost over, all that was left was to reveal the coloring books and begin passing them out. Finally, he would be allowed off of this stage and be free to speak to Anna. Taking the chest from Chika, Foxy then turned to the children once more. "Would ye still like ta know what's inside ol' Foxy's treasure chest?" he asked, getting a round of excited nods and shouts. He spared one more glance to Anna, the little girl watching him with sad, almost pleading eyes. He had to hurry this along.

Kneeling at the edge of the stage, the pirate quickly opened the chest, avoiding the small build up that had been planned for the occasion, and reached inside to pull out a handful of the coloring books and show them off to the kids. He forced a cheery tone into his voice, "Colorin' books a me an' me pals! Looks like I got enough for each a' ye little scallywags! I also got some coupons fer yer folks, too!" he announced, getting squeals and cheers of excitement from the children as he stood back up.

Unable to wait any longer, Foxy started offstage without the others, skipping a few lines and interactions that had been planned. By now, Freddy, Chika and Bonnie seemed to understand why Foxy was so impatient, gathering up handfuls of the books to start offstage as well and hand them out to the disappointed children Foxy had skipped.

The fox just couldn't bring himself to stop and interact with the other children. He couldn't waste anymore time, he had to know what was wrong with Anna. He had to find out what had stolen her smile.

Approaching her table, Foxy knelt softly beside Anna's seat and held the coloring books out to her with his good hand, offering her a smile. "Here ye are, lass." he said softly, watching as the little girl gave a tiny, insincere smile and took the gift gently.

"Thank you, Foxy..." she said, her usually happy voice filled with sorrow, with emotions a child her age should never feel.

He had to resist every urge to speak freely with her, knowing the man was watching him. But he couldn't leave her like this, he had to know why she was hurting so. Maybe if he knew the cause for her pain he could fix it. "Did ye enjoy the show?" he asked, going through routine interactions and hoping the man would turn his attention away from them.

Anna nodded, though her false smile fell into a look of despair, tears building in her gorgeous eyes. "I wish my daddy was here..." she whimpered out so quietly Foxy almost couldn't hear her.

His mechanical ears drooped at the heartache in her voice, leaning in closer to her carefully. "Anna... What's wrong, lass?" he asked quietly, trying not to be heard by the man sitting on her other side.

Quivering, the little girl didn't respond. At least, not with words. Her eyes glanced nervously to the man beside her before returning to Foxy, tears beginning to drip down her cheeks. She looked as though she wanted to tell him something, something important - before the man spoke up, placing his hand on her shoulder and making her wince softly. "That's enough, Anna. It still needs to hand out the rest of those books, right?" he said, his tone sounding odd, as though he didn't want her to say anymore, as though he had something to hide.

The fox stood slowly from his kneeling position, taking a few seconds longer to respond than normal. He had seen the way she shied away from this man's touch. "Aye, sir. Don't ye forget to come back an' use that coupon!" he said with forced cheer, his voice dragging faintly before he shifted to step around their chairs, watching them as he started toward the next table slowly, reluctantly.

As he walked around behind the two, Foxy watched when the man leaned down to whisper to the little girl, the hand on Anna's shoulder sliding down her side to her hip. His circuits buzzed with a sudden fury as that hand came to rest on the inside of her thigh where her pink skirt didn't quite cover the skin. Foxy paused in his steps, seeing Anna's small body shaking as she struggled not to cry.

Understanding hit Foxy painfully. He knew now why Anna didn't smile, why she didn't laugh. Because this man - this MONSTER had stolen her innocence, her childhood. He had stolen her smile... Never. He would NEVER let him touch her like that again.

Without so much as a second thought, Foxy turned on the man and lunged for his head, catching it in his jaws before anyone even knew what was happening. A sickening *crunch* echoed in Foxy's audio as he bit down as hard as he could, muffling the sounds of screams and panic, hot blood spilling thickly into his mouth. Mark's familiar voice called out over the erupting chaos and Foxy felt a hand prying open the panel on his back to shut his power, but he still didn't let go - until everything suddenly went black...

When Foxy came online again, he was in the storage closet with Freddy kneeling in front of him, the bear's hands on his aching jaw. He tried to speak and winced when he quickly realized his jaw was hanging awkwardly, the right side feeling as though it had broken off of its hinge.

Freddy held it in place as he worked on repairing the fox. "Hold on, we're almost done." assured the larger, Chika sitting beside Foxy with tools and extra parts.

Bonnie's voice sounded from somewhere behind Freddy, seemingly arguing with someone. "You can't just put him out of order! They'll scrap him!" he shouted, Mark's voice responding suddenly. "They won't scrap him! You know I wouldn't let them do that! But I can't keep Pirate Cove open, not after this. Shit, he bit a guys head off!"

Foxy quivered as he tried to speak once more, though Chika spoke up for him, "You should at least hear his side of the story! He wouldn't do something like that for no reason!" she argued nervously as she watched their human friend, Freddy frowning softly as he continued to work on Foxy's broken jaw. "He can explain everything after I get this fixed. But, I'm sure it had something to do with Anna..."

Mark looked confused. "What do you mean? Who's Anna?" he asked curiously.

Bonnie shifted to step closer to the other animatronics. "A little girl that always comes to Pirate Cove to see Foxy... Something was wrong with her today. She wasn't acting right." explained the rabbit before glancing when a growl erupted in Foxy's throat, the pirate speaking through his broken jaw with some difficulty.

"Th-that sick bastard was molestin' Anna!"

The four stiffened, Mark quickly stepping forward. "Wait, how do you know that?"

Foxy growled at the memory of that man's hand on Anna's thigh, traveling up under her skirt. "Because I s-saw the way he touched her... She was scared ta death of him, cryin'... I wasn't gonna let him hurt her again."

Bonnie frowned in disgust, his fists clenching. "Well, you made sure he won't be hurting anyone again." he said firmly, Chika drooping sadly. "The poor thing... How could he do that to her?" she said quietly, shaking her head. Freddy frowned softly as he continued working on Foxy's jaw, glancing over his shoulder faintly at Mark. "...You can't put him out of order for this..."

The man sighed, lifting a hand to rub his aching temples. "Guys, I'm sorry... I don't have a choice here." he explained sadly.

Bonnie shook his head in irritation. "This isn't fair. Can't you just tell them that the guy was a pedophile? Come on Mark, they're wasting their sympathies on that freak!"

"I can't without everyone finding out about you guys! And that would NOT be a good idea right now... They would be freaked out enough as it is, but now knowing that you guys are capable of actually hurting someone? They would panic. Well, more than they would have normally..." Mark said, running a hand through his hair.

Foxy shivered, speaking up once more, "Oi, i-it's fine, Bonnie... Bein' put outta order... is better than what I was expectin'." he said softly, his eyes dimming as Freddy gently held his jaw in place while tightening the last screw.

The rabbit looked to Foxy sympathetically. "But you saved her! You shouldn't be punished for that!"

The pirate frowned as he answered, "Aye, an' I don't regret that. An' neither should ye. I killed the bastard, an' I'll accept the consequences. As long as Anna's all right, I don't care what happens ta me..."

The bear frowned softly as he withdrew his hands from the repaired jaw, which had been cleaned of blood hours ago. "She's safe now... You made sure of that." said Freddy gently before he shifted to stand and turn his attention to Mark. "We don't like that he'll be out of order indefinitely... but we are thankful that you did what you could to spare his life. Thank you, Mark..."

The human gave a soft nod. "It's not a problem. What are friends for, right?" he asked with a weak chuckle, getting a small smile from the animatronics.

-

Shivering as he came out of the memory, Foxy closed his glowing eyes softly. They had learned the next day that Mark had been fired. And to add insult to injury, Freddy and the others would no longer be allowed to come offstage and interact with the children as they had before. They could still speak with them from the stage... but that wasn't the same. If there was one thing he could say he regretted about that day, it was that he had dragged his friends down with him.

He opened his eyes slowly and listened once more to the sounds of the birthday party going on outside. Today was Anna's birthday... She would be thirteen. Next month would be the six year anniversary of The Bite. The six year anniversary of the last time he ever saw Anna. He wasn't surprised that she had never come back. A child that young seeing something so violent... he doubted she would ever want to set foot inside this restaurant again. She was probably just as scared of him as she had been of the man who hurt her. But, that man could never hurt her again, he knew that much for certain. Without his frontal lobe, there wasn't a lot he could do to anyone.

The light filtering between the curtains was suddenly blocked, catching Foxy's attention as he looked up in time to see a small figure slipping inside. He tensed, going stiff and acting as though he was simply a broken down animatronic that had been set aside to be out of the way.

The child turned slowly to face Foxy, approaching quietly, carefully. Blond, shoulder length curls swayed gently with her movement as she came closer, a look of worry on her soft features. "...Foxy?" she asked gently.

That voice was painfully familiar and yet foreign all at once. It was the same little voice that had always called out to him with such excitement and eagerly asked him for a hug or simply wanted to talk to him. Though, it was slightly deeper, more mature than it had been back then. Foxy let down his guard as he focused on the girl through the darkness, allowing his eyes to light up to illuminate her face... and his systems hummed with energy as he took in her curls and her green-blue eyes. "...Anna..?" he whispered, disbelief in his voice.

She smiled, suddenly rushing in to embrace the worn animatronic. "You're still alive..!"

Foxy's eyes glowed in surprise to have her arms around him again, shivering... before slowly returning the embrace, holding her carefully, mindful of his hook. "Aye, I still be here, lass... But I never thought I'd see ye again." he admitted, a sad smile playing on his features. "After that day... I thought ye'd be afraid a' ol' Foxy..."

Anna pulled back just enough to look into the familiar face, a soft smile still on her lips. "I was scared then... But I know you were only trying to protect me. A-and if you hadn't attacked my uncle, I would probably never have had the courage to tell my family what he did to me." explained the teen quietly, her smile falling as she continued, "But... you lost your job because of me."

The pirate fox frowned softly, reaching his hand up to gently brush a lock of hair out of her face. "Don't be daft, lass. I got put outta order because a' me own actions. An' I don't regret it. If I had it ta do over again, I'd still do what I had ta to protect ye." he said without a trace of hesitation in his voice.

The young girl watched him as her smile slowly returned. "...Thank you." said Anna quietly as she hugged him tight once more, tears welling in her eyes. "Thank you so much for saving me..."

Foxy held her protectively as she started to sob into the ripped fabric of his chest, the light of his eyes dimming. "Shh... Ye don't have ta thank me, Anna. I never woulda let him get away with hurtin' ye like that..." he assured as he soothingly stroked over the back of her head, feeling her soft curls between his fingers. They stayed like this for a few, quiet moments, Foxy holding Anna close as her sobs turned into soft sniffles. He didn't want to let her go... but he knew she couldn't stay here for long. Nuzzling at the top of her head softly, Foxy gently started to loosen his hold. "Ye best get back to your family, lass. Before they start worryin'." suggested the fox gently.

Anna pulled back slowly with a hiccup, her body trembling softly as she lifted a hand to wipe the tears from her cheeks. "I-I don't want to go." she sniffled, her voice thick with sorrow.

The fox lifted the blunt curve of his hook to her chin, lifting her gaze to meet his own with a warm smile. "Hey... chin up, lass. I'm always gonna be right here if ye ever wanna come see me again. Just be careful sneakin' in... ye know it's against the rules fer ye ta be back here." he said with a soft chuckle.

That got a weak smile from the young girl, Anna sniffling once more as she gave a little nod. "O-okay... I-I'll try to come back soon." she promised before placing a small kiss to the fox's nose. "Goodbye, Foxy..." she said gently before turning slowly to start for the curtains.

"Goodbye, Anna..." said Foxy quietly as he watched her leave.

She peaked out of the curtains cautiously, making sure the cost was clear. Anna spared him one last glance over her shoulder and waved in farewell before slipping out to hurry offstage before anyone noticed her.

As Foxy was left alone on his stage once more, he felt a warmth in his circuits he had not felt for many years. He was content. He now knew for certain that his actions had not been in vain, that Anna was safe and doing well. He had spared her further suffering. And she did not fear him for it. That knowledge brought a smile to his lips, his gears whirring as he relaxed against the steps to his ship softly.

He would always miss performing for the children, miss making them laugh and singing with them. But he could never regret what he did. If he was to be demonized for that, then so be it.


End file.
